Press release 23/12/2020

HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION SATELLITE ACCOUNT. 2018

The value of unpaid domestic work is equal to 27.7% of the GDP of the Basque Country in 2018

Despite the fact that men’s contribution has increased by 12 percentage points in the last 25 years, the percentage of the total assumed by women was double in 2018

The value of household production in the Basque Country increased to 21,296 million euros in 2018, equivalent to 27.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for that year according to Eustat data.

Eustat has compiled the sixth five-yearly Household Production Satellite Account, the basic objective of which is to create an overall picture of the productive activities that households carry out, and to estimate the economic value of these activities. In the majority of cases, this economic value is not recorded in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates. The main productive activities are: provision of accommodation, care and education, provision of food and tasks related to clothing and volunteering.

An analysis of the data from these twenty-five years reveals in particular the decrease in how much the value of unpaid household production contributes to GDP. It went from 46.2% in 1993 to 27.7% in 2018, the lowest value in the series. Once again, this clearly demonstrates the countercyclical trend in household production, which increases in times of crisis due to the fact that resources are transferred from the market economy to unpaid domestic production, and decreases in times of prosperity.

In 2018, there were no major differences in the distribution by function compared with 2013, as the order of importance of functions that made up the largest proportion of the total remained the same: in first place was work for the Provision of Food (40.4%) and Accommodation (29.6%), followed by the Provision of Care and Education (22.5%) and, in last place, Clothes and Others (7.5%).

However, it is worth nothing the increasing significance of the function of providing care and education, which went from 15.5% in 2008 to 22.5% in 2018, to the detriment of the function of providing food, which fell from 44.7% in 2008 to 40.4% in 2018. These data appear to reflect an ageing population pyramid and the fact that more care is required, which occupies households to a greater extent.

Domestic work carried out by women accounted for 18.6% of GDP, double the economic weight of such work performed by men, at 9.1%

In terms of distribution by sex, unpaid domestic work, as on the paid market, was mostly performed by women. Women accounted for 67.2% of domestic work carried out in their own home. Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that, in all activities analysed, women made a higher contribution than men. By function, it is Housing (38.0%) and Care and Education (34.7%) where we see the greatest rate of male participation in 2018, closely followed by the function of Provision of Food (30.9%), while the lowest rate of male participation is in Provision of Clothes and Others (17.4%).

In the long-term, the changes that have taken place over the last 25 years have shown that, even though the rate of male participation in household production has increased by 12 points, the percentage of work done by women in 2018 was actually double in relation to the total for non-paid household chores.

The distribution by province of unpaid household chores is in line with the population of that province, i.e. Álava generates 15.4% of household production, Bizkaia 52.6% and Gipuzkoa the remaining 32.0%.

The distribution of household production according to gender was similar in the three provinces, with men’s share of unpaid domestic activities as a whole standing at 33% across all three provinces.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62